Hay bale pickup and transfer vehicles for large, heavy bales have been utilized for many years. Prior art bale handling devices often include loading ramps having forks that slide under a bale and pivot to a vertical position, depositing the bale on the bed of a truck or trailer. During the pivoting of the loading ramp, the bale is primarily supported by the loading ramp until the bale reaches the truck bed.
The ramps of the prior art are either of one piece construction or contain two sections that remain at a generally constant angle with respect to each other. Although the angle between the two sections may sometimes be manually adjusted, each bale is slightly different and individual manual adjustment is not practical. The one or two section ramps may therefore not properly cradle the bale and the bale is apt to shift sideways during loading which at best may cause uneven placement of the bales on the bed and at worst may result in the bale toppling off the side of the loading ramp, particularly if the bale is large.
Also, in the prior art, the loading of an entire truck or trailer bed is often accomplished by either a conveyor belt, or just by pushing each load gradually down the length of the bed by each new load that is deposited. Either of these methods often requires expensive, heavy duty transfer equipment. At least parts of such transfer equipment often must be permanently mounted on a truck, requiring purchase of both a specialized truck and bale handling equipment, adding to the expense of the hay baling operation. Mounting the bale handling equipment on a truck also requires the operator to back up to lift a bale which is inconvenient and time consuming.